HTML 5 spec license and WG charter review

Sam,

I mentioned today that I thought changing the license we
use to publish the HTML 5 spec required changing the charter,
but in trying to construct the argument in detail, I see
that it falls apart...

I thought that by approving the charter, the membership
had agreed that HTML 5 would be published using the
W3C document license, but I see that the W3C process
document already delegates copyright details to
the staff/Team in such a way that it's subject to
change with notice but not review:

"The Team is NOT REQUIRED to publish a technical report that does not
conform to the Team's Publication Rules (e.g., for naming, style, and
copyright requirements). These rules are subject to change. The Team
MUST inform group Chairs and the Advisory Board of any changes."
 -- http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#DocumentsGeneral

While I'm sure Philippe will socialize the idea with the W3C membership
in due course, I think changing the license we use to publish the
HTML 5 spec is a decision the Team is authorized to make without
membership review of an updated HTML WG charter.

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
gpg D3C2 887B 0F92 6005 C541  0875 0F91 96DE 6E52 C29E

Received on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 22:00:56 UTC